


Proofs don't lie

by ChocoNut



Series: Modern JB love [77]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, SO MUCH FLUFF, and a tiny bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:29:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29631888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocoNut/pseuds/ChocoNut
Summary: Five times Brienne is caught with evidence of her feelings, and the one time Jaime decides to open up to his.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Series: Modern JB love [77]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1557871
Comments: 16
Kudos: 111





	Proofs don't lie

**Author's Note:**

> For the purpose of this story, I've assumed Jaime and Brienne to be of the same age.

“Now what is _that_?”

Margaery bends to pick up the photo, but Brienne gets there before her. “Nothing.”

Before she can tuck it back into the book and put the book away from these prying eyes, Sansa’s greedy hand confiscates the faded photo. “That is really sweet,” she says, breaking into a smile. “When was this? And why did neither of you bother to show it to us?”

To her embarrassment, Jaime is the next to claim custody to it. “This was a candid shot Aunt Genna managed to accidentally capture. We were both what—six or seven?” Amused green eyes turn to her. “I never knew you still had it, wench.”

Throw away a picture of Jaime placing a kiss on her cheek—how can she even think of it? “I keep stuff,” she says, making this sound like a generic habit. “They make fond memories.” 

“Fond?” Jaime chuckles, bringing back to her mind the heated fight they’d had after that, much of which involved him teasing her to tears and getting a nasty scolding from his aunt later for his misbehaviour. “If I remember correctly, you weren’t too pleased when I caught hold of you and kissed you just to irritate—”

“Oh, please! That was not a kiss. Just one kid trying to bully the other.” She didn’t want to think what an actual kiss from him might feel like.

“You did nothing to stop him.” Tyrion quickly begins to see this from her eyes. She can see his brain processing this faster than a computer. “I was told you were quite strong even as a girl. You could’ve easily overpowered him, pinned him down—why didn't you?”

“Look at them—they had such a crush on each other,” Sansa teases, and putting on a sing-song voice, goes on, “Jaime and Brienne sitting on a tree, k-i-s-s—” 

“I was too dazed to react,” Brienne shuts her up, and not daring to stay on and continue the conversation, she grabs the book and the photo and bolts out of there.

+++++ 

“I didn’t know you had a thing for pressed flowers.”

“Give me that.” Brienne takes the carefully preserved violet from her hand and inserts it back where it belongs—in the cozy warmth of the heavy bound volume that has housed it for years.

“Is that—” 

She slams the book shut when Jaime comes in for a closer look, but she’s a second or two too late. “Is that—” 

“Yes,” she admits, but refuses to look him in the eye.

That was the bloom he’d plucked for her on their last day of high school. It had been a casual walk around the garden. For an onlooker it was just two friends discussing their fun days together, and of how they’d like their lives to unfold. But inside, she was nursing a huge crush. 

She still does; only, over the years, it has advanced to a stage far beyond a school girl’s infatuation.

“You like flowers, Brienne?” Margaery and Sansa share a look. “How come we never knew that?”

“Apparently only my brother does,” Tyrion calls out from his corner, without even raising his head from the comic he’s been memorizing for a while.

+++++

“Hey look!” 

Brienne grimaces at the tone of mystery and excitement which means she’s in for more trouble.

“It’s a birthday card this time.”

Brienne dashes out of the couch and grabs her property before the nosy pair of women can lay their overly gossipy eyes on it. “Don’t even think of opening that.”

“I remember that.” Jaime enters; eyes the card on her lap. “When you turned eighteen, right?”

She pushes it back into the envelope. How does he always manage to show up whenever she’s caught in an embarrassing situation like this?

“I already saw what it said on the front,” Margaery says, with the air of someone who has uncovered an award-worthy national secret. “ _Happy birthday to my dearest wench_.”

“ _Dearest?_ ” It is Tyrion and his half-smile and the twinkle in his eyes which means no good. “My brother has never showered such infinite affection on me all these years.”

“ _Wench_ is not exactly an expression of love,” Brienne indignantly blurts out. While it did feel annoying when he had started it just to spite her, as time passed, she had grown accustomed to it to the extent that if he doesn’t call her that for days together, it feels strange, like something’s out of order between them.

“When did I say anything about him being in love with you?”

Leaving her gaping at his question with a pair of flaming cheeks to hide from the gang, Tyrion dives back into his phone.

+++++

“The Oathkeeper key chain.” Sansa gives it an admiring gaze. “You told me Jaime gave it to you when you were in college.”

“Hmm.”

“And you named it _Oathkeeper_ because—?”

“I never knew you gave it a name, Brienne.” Jaime smiles wryly. “Oathkeeper reminds me of something that happened in my youth.” There’s that look on his face again—lost and pained. “The others in class would stay aloof because they believed I back-stabbed Aerys during a project,” Jaime explains, his voice as vacant as the young lad who had been nicknamed _Oathbreaker._ “Brienne was the only one who heard my side—”

“I knew you since we were kids,” she says, her heart melting at the recollection of the emotional baggage he’d had to carry. “I knew you wouldn’t—”

“That’s why you named your miniature sword key chain _Oathkeeper_ ,” Tyrion deduces. “To appease my brother—”

“I gave it that name because I—” Fearing she might give out more than required, she hides away the truth in her mind as always.

“Because you—?” Tyrion’s eyes are wide open, brows shooting up to his hair.

She wants to confess, but has anything ever come out of one-sided pining? Except, apart from the heartbreak of rejection, she might end up losing a valued friend. “I just happen to like the name. It feels grand and fancy,” she says, tossing the key chain into her purse to put an end to the matter.

+++++ 

“Glad you guys could make it at such a short notice.” Brienne switches on her laptop and clicks on the presentation she intends to have them review. “I’d really appreciate a few pairs of eyes on this before I show it to the senior management tomorrow.”

“Happy to help,” Tyrion says cheerfully as she connects the computer to her television.

“Is it a huge file?” Jaime wonders, staring at the loading symbol that has been circling at the centre of the screen for longer than it’s supposed to take. 

“No.” She aborts the file that’s still struggling to open, and tries again. Again, it hangs. “Looks like the file on my local drive is corrupted. I should have a copy somewhere else. Hang on.” 

She goes to the bedroom to get her backup, but when she’s back, she’s in for a shock, for gazing at her from the TV screen is Jaime filling all the forty-three inches with his handsome splendour. On the high resolution, with every bit of his stubble and every feature crystal clear, he looks more gorgeous than ever.

“I didn’t know you had your friends as your screensaver,” Tyrion welcomes her back while the women are busy staring at the Jaime slide-show on the screen. “Quite flattering.”

“It’s not _friends,_ ” Marge slyly corrects him. “It’s only Jaime. Look—”

“ _He_ is her friend, too.” There comes Tyrion’s tiresome expression again. “Isn’t he, Brienne?”

Brienne rushes to grab the mouse to make it go away, but Jaime puts himself in her way. “Friends as screensavers, huh?”

“Move aside.” Pushing him away, she pulls out the mouse, then the HDMI cable to make the images on the screen go away.

Ignoring the questioning eyes on her, she re-packs her laptop. Murmuring a quick thanks and an apology for the inconvenience, she collects her stuff and hurries to her room.

+++++

He knocks on the open door. “Can I come in?”

Brienne closes her book and sits upright. “Will a _‘no’_ make you go away?”

Jaime strikes her with that charming smile again. “No.” Her pulse begins to pick up when comes in and plants himself by her side on the bed. “Avoiding me isn’t going to help, wench.”

“I’ve been avoiding everyone,” she says, as if that’s good justification for her behaviour.

“So—” he has on a frown she doesn’t know what to make of “—I’m the same as _everyone_?” 

Those eyes already know the truth. There’s no point hiding it anymore. “Is a _‘yes’_ going to sound convincing?”

“No.”

She’s waiting for him to go on and tell her what usually unfolds in a one-sided romantic declaration—an apologetic _‘you’re sweet and you’re special, but I don’t think of you as more than a friend’_. Instead, he fishes his phone out of his pocket and unlocks it. 

“Here—” He hands it to her, and staring out of the screen is a picture of her she doesn’t even know the existence of.

“This—” She takes in the dress and her laughing eyes. That look, that party and the way they had danced the night away—it has been a while since she has enjoyed this much.

“New Year’s eve ten years back,” he says, reading her mind. “Blue is a good colour on you.” His voice is soft; so is his touch when his fingertips kiss hers. “Goes well with your lovely eyes.”

She swallows to overcome the scratchy sensation in her throat. “You have a picture of me on your home screen?” This has to mean that he too—

“On my lock screen as well. And—” he opens an album in his gallery “—loads more.”

She swipes on, mesmerized. In there are pictures she knows of, and those he has, obviously, taken candidly and kept to himself.

“There’s one more thing I need to show you.” He takes the phone and opens an email folder. In there is all the correspondence they have exchanged since the Internet and email came into existence. “I have all our letters as well. Every birthday card and every gift you have given me. Remember the Asterix comic you got me—the one I’d been hunting for unsuccessfully?”

She nods.

“The Limited edition Star Wars DVD set you paid a premium and pre-ordered for me?”

She smiles. She has not, till date, understood his craze for the franchise.

“And _Oathkeeper—_ ” his voice trembles when he caresses her fingers; the corners of his eyes twitch a bit “—I realized what it means, Brienne.” 

Overwhelmed, she doesn’t know what to say.

From his wallet he produces a copy of the photo that has the mini version of him kissing her on the cheek. “And of course, how can I not have this?”

Memories and emotions flood her as she takes it with shaking fingers. “That’s the cutest of all.”

“Yeah.” He puts away the phone and looks deeply into her eyes. “Only, that wasn’t a real kiss,” he whispers, tilting his lips to hers. “Isn’t it time we found out what one feels like?”

When they do, it feels like the earth and the sky have come together in a passionate union—one rising to reach her love, the other descending half-way to meet his. When he wraps around her the warmth of his body, Brienne knows her heart will never be empty again.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, thank you for reading :)


End file.
